The <strike>Anaesthetist</strike> Mayor of Casterbridge is the only book currently on my shelf that I have started and not finished. I think my english teacher gave up on me after the third time I fell asleep in class while we were reding it. I did get an A on that exam, though. One of the reasons it's still on the shelf is that it's one of the very few there which isn't either sci-fi/fantasy or technical non-fiction. Also, I have this nagging guilt that I was supposed to finish it and never got past chapter 8...

The only book on my shelf that I actively dislike the sight of is a Visual Basic textbook that I have kept because I'm a tutor for a course that requires it. That's not so much a problem with the book (which is fairly well written, actually) as with the subject matter. The bright yellow cover doesn't help much, though.

The vast majority of books I keep are there because I intend to reread them. This really confuses my mother, who only reads books once, and she keeps trying to get me to get rid of some of them. I think I need some more shelves.

Not so much for the story itself, which was just poor, but rather the whole experience: The title; the cover illustration (typical mid-70s paperback sci-fi cover); the cover blurb which promised so much; the pedestrian story (set in "the present" [though published in '79, it read like it was written in the 50s], which concerned the 2300 people who had been made into superhuman biodroids by removing their internal organs and storing the organs in a manner that not only kept them alive but also remotely connected to their bodies, which somehow granted superhuman abilities); and the Manor editing--I swear, there was literally a typographical or grammatical error on almost every page.

I kept it for a while as a curiosity, but eventually it went in the trash.

Oh, and also the expurgated edition of Foster's movie adaptation of Aliens. I read up to the point where Ripley met the marines, and noticed that the marines were, well, rather polite. I quickly flipped through the book, looking for the expected crude quotes, only to find every such utterance had been removed. When I finally came to the showdown scene, in which Ripley faced the alien queen and shouted, "Get away from her, YOU!", well, I got rid of it. There was nothing on the cover or in the indica that said the book was edited or abridged, but I was later told that there is a normal edition in which the marines speak as expected, though I've never bothered to check.

that story is quite possibly the funniest short story I've ever read, at least the 'mstk3000' version of it which is floating around the 'net.

Every so often, when I'm feeling down, I'll go dig it up and read it. By the end of it, I've got tears coming from my eyes and I can hardly breath from laughing. I then feel much better.

Worst book that I own? I have a couple of truly dreadful cyber-punk-like (but nowhere near as good) books about some aliens who come to earth, and so the earthlings put their brains into cybernetic bodies to fight them..."cyber commando" or something.

Utter trash. When I was thirteen I thought they were marvellous *shudder*. I'm so ashamed.

Am I the only one who thinks Gravity's Rainbow is a rambling, barely-coherent morass of pop culture and esoterica? Granted, it is linguistically "rich" -- in the same way that a bag of fertilizer is rich.

2) Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson. The first two books in the series were a fun read about new rebellions and new political sytems---the last one was about 200-year-old people whining about dying of old age, with a completely cop-out ending.

I think I still have a $2 used copy of Kevin J. Anderson's Star Wars atrocity somewhere around. That's the series of books where the bad guys are an Imperial detachment that's been hiding in hyperspace for well over a decade with four Star Destroyers and an invincible supernova-causing superweapon the size of the Millenium Falcon.

I think I still have a $2 used copy of Kevin J. Anderson's Star Wars atrocity somewhere around. That's the series of books where the bad guys are an Imperial detachment that's been hiding in hyperspace for well over a decade with four Star Destroyers and an invincible supernova-causing superweapon the size of the Millenium Falcon.

Well, I rely on word of mouth for my reads so I don't get real trash... And I don't waste cash for anything unresearched, what with the book prices here.

Except one time. I bought The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb because I had too much money on my hands and didin't want to return home empty-handed.

It's basically as if Sword of Truth's plot transplanted in a cliché fantasy-ish background with lots of loose ends, an unconvincing magic system and badly done destiny/prophecy stuff. And a hero that doesn't seem to have neither vices nor virtues. Stupid and irritating. Didin't bother purchasing the sequel.

I hated my algebra book, not be cause it was algebra but because the book royally sucked at explaining itself and has pissed me off to no end. If I diddnt have to return it at the end oif the year then I would have had a rousing bonmfire with my freinds the day of graduation.

I hated my algebra book, not be cause it was algebra but because the book royally sucked at explaining itself and has pissed me off to no end. If I diddnt have to return it at the end oif the year then I would have had a rousing bonmfire with my freinds the day of graduation.

I hated my algebra book, not be cause it was algebra but because the book royally sucked at explaining itself and has pissed me off to no end...

Sounds like every math book I encountered in high school.

If you want to rant about bad textbooks, I have 2:

Nakama I and Nakama II, which are Japanese language textbooks.

The main problem was that the typesetters and proofreaders apparently couldn't read Japanese. Enough said.

Another problem was that the authors had a habit of using vocabulary, grammatical structures, and kanji, which hadn't been introduced to the student yet (which sometimes wouldn't be introduced until several chapters later, or even in other semesters), while expecting the student to understand them. I guess they expected the instructor to explain what was going on, but that doesn't help when you're trying to study or do your homework.

By the end of the 4th semester, we had accumulated a list of around 20 kanji words that were never defined in either text, or given hiragana (phonetic alphabet) or romanized spellings.

The instructor in each semester said that she'd been forwarding a list of errors to the publisher, but as far as I know, there's been no new edition yet (2 years later).

Okay, what in your collection would you not wish on your worst enemy? You have to actually own the book.

For me it's a tossup between: Bears Dicover Fire and Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies.

Hah, I rather enjoyed Bears Discover Fire, but then I read it in Best Sci-Fi Of The Year 8, so it could be a different version.

Ogredude wrote:

the worst book I own is "Fell Swoop" by Piers Anthony. He really does not like writing Xanth anymore, and you can tell.

It's 'Swell Foop', and I'll agree that that was not his best effort. I don't think it's that he doesn't like writing Xanth anymore, he's just burned out on it. A few years away from it would probably do the series some good.

Tyken wrote:

Two worst books I own (or did own at some point or another):

2) Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson. The first two books in the series were a fun read about new rebellions and new political sytems---the last one was about 200-year-old people whining about dying of old age, with a completely cop-out ending.

I'll agree to that. Yet, every time I break out Red Mars, I have to read the other two.

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I once had an English teacher tell the whole class to never read Walden if they could possibly avoid it, because it was just so damn boring.

The worst book that I own (that I've read, I own a lot of books that I haven't read yet) is House Of Stairs. I once saw a copy at a friends house, and the conversation went thus:

Me: Have you read that book yet?
Chris: That is the worst book I have ever read. Whatever you do, do not read it, it's terrible. It sucks, seriously.
Me: I was about to warn you of the same thing.

I once had an English teacher tell the whole class to never read Walden if they could possibly avoid it, because it was just so damn boring.

It takes a little getting into, but yeah, it drags something fierce.

Ironically, I think <i>Walden</i> is more important today than at the time of its conception. When it was written, the USA was still primarily an agricultural economy, and the majority of Americans actually lived lifestyles similar to the one Thoreau adopted at Walden Pond. The fact that he saw it as such a revelation - and that his peers also hailed it as such - seems somehow elitist to me.

This is just my opinion, of course, and your mileage may vary. But "Walden" makes my list of annoying books as well, Prometheus, if not for precisely the same reason.